30 Oct 07 - "A series of monumental volcanic eruptions in India
may have killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, not a meteor impact
in the Gulf of Mexico. The eruptions, which created the gigantic Deccan
Traps lava beds of India, are now the prime suspect in the most famous
and persistent paleontological murder mystery, say scientists who have
conducted a slew of new investigations honing down eruption timing.

Rajahmundry Quarry.
Keller's crucial link between the eruption and the mass
extinction comes in the form of microscopic marine
fossils that evolved
immediately after the mass extinction event. The
same telltale fossilized
planktonic foraminifera were found at Rajahmundry
near the Bay of Bengal,
about 1000 km from the center of the Deccan Traps
near Mumbai. (Photo
courtesy Gerta Keller)

"It's the first time we can directly link the main phase of the
Deccan Traps to the mass extinction," said Princeton University
paleontologist Gerta Keller. The main phase of the Deccan eruptions
spewed 80 percent of the lava which spread out for hundreds of miles. It
is calculated to have released ten times more climate altering gases
into the atmosphere than the nearly concurrent Chicxulub meteor impact,
according to volcanologist Vincent Courtillot.

Keller's link between the eruption and the mass extinction comes in
the form of microscopic marine fossils that evolved immediately after
the mass extinction event. The same telltale fossilized planktonic
foraminifera were found at Rajahmundry near the Bay of Bengal, about
1000 kilometers from the center of the Deccan Traps near Mumbai. At
Rajahmundry there are two lava "traps" containing four layers
of lava each. Between the traps are about nine meters of marine
sediments. Those sediments just above the lower trap, the mammoth main
phase, contain the incriminating microfossils.

"The microfossils … demonstrate directly that the biggest
phase of the eruption ended right when the aftermath of the mass
extinction event began.

"The Deccan Traps also provide an answer to a question on which
Chicxulub (the supposed meteor site) was silent: Why did it take about
300,000 years for marine species to recover from the extinction event?
The solution is in the upper, later Deccan Traps eruptions.

"Keller and her collaborator Thierry Adatte from the University
of Neuchatel, Switzerland, are scheduled to present the new findings on
Tuesday, 30 October, at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of
America in Denver."

The Deccan Traps, a "volcanic flood," was about one
mile
deep and covered an area half the size of Australia.
According to paleontologist Dewey McLean (personal
communication), a good portion of the Deccan Traps
was
submarine.

Wouldn’t it make sense that thousands of cubic miles -
cubic
miles! - of lava pouring into the seas at 2,150
degrees hot might heat the seas just a tad? (Ocean
temperatures at the dinosaur extinction rose by
14E
to 22EF.)

The
increased evaporation would have sent excess
moisture
rose into the skies, skies which had already
cooled
because of the ash from the above-water
eruptions.
This lead to massive increases in snowfall,
and to an
ice age. That's one of the main points of
"Not by Fire
but by Ice."(See
http://www.iceagenow.com/Volcanism_Killed_Dinosaurs.htm)
.